When attempting to install some new software on my Windows XP computer a message appears during the installation wizard that says “The following error occurred on file: C:\WINDOWS\System32\ioctlvdd.dll. Access is denied”. Around the time this error began to occur I remember that a Trojan virus or alike was detected, quarantined, and deleted. Do you have any advice on how this problem can be solved? (more…)

Recently I purchased a 2 TB external hard drive for backup. In my computer there are four “drives” (i.e. partitions) so using TeraCopy I copied all the drives onto the external backup drive. However, during the process one of the drives was cleaned-out – all the folders are now empty. The copy on the external hard drive is the same – all the folders have copied but they are empty of any files. Do you know why this has happened and how I can restore the files? (more…)

I am encountering difficulty installing Google Earth and iTunes. While I can download the install files successfully when I attempt to run the installers an error message appears with code 0×80040905. Are you able to assist with solving this problem? (more…)

Recently my computer has become very slow after it operates for more than one hour, most frustratingly the words on the screen do not keep up with my typing and clicking on internet items does not always produce results. I have contacted my ISP several times and they have checked everything from their end and say that nothing is wrong. The NOD32 antivirus product is installed on the computer and there are no viruses. The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

People frequently ask questions about the “msconfig” utility and startup programs, but I must confess that I don’t completely understand the purpose of msconfig. I assume that any processes needed by the operating system start anyway, and appreciate that firewalls and antivirus programs must run in the background, but why would I want other programs to run in the background out of my control? If I remove a program from the list can it be started manually later? Incidentally, I don’t recall placing programs in this list, or being asked if I want it to be placed there, so how do the programs get put there in the first place? (more…)